The Bush Withdrawal

We knew it was coming, but the lie is so bald-faced and transparent that it's truly laughable. Now the White House is claiming authorship of the plan to withdraw from Iraq. They even have the chutzpah to claim that the Democrats are finally catching up to them, as in, "Senator Biden Adopts Key Portions Of Administration's Plan For Victory In Iraq." Digby, tongue in cheek, gets it just right:

As you know, Democrats have long been insisting that the US stay in Iraq indefinitely. It was only through the wise counsel and patient persuasion of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush that they were convinced that a timed withdrawal was the best way to go.

As an indication of what will happen once we have "won the war" and left the country,

The leader of Iraq's most powerful political party has called on the United States to let Iraqi fighters take a more aggressive role against insurgents, saying his country will only be able to defeat the insurgency when the United States lets Iraqis get tough...

... Hakim asserted in a rare interview late last week, the United States is tying Iraq's hands in the fight against insurgents. One of Iraq's "biggest problems is the mistaken or wrong policies practiced by the Americans," he said. [From the Washington Post]

Meanwhile, Iraq's former Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi, informs us that the present government of Iraq is as bad or worse than Saddam's. He is quoted in the Guardian Observer as follows:

'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.'

So, while Bush will claim that we have "won the war," it will be the same kind of hollow victory that we had in Vietnam -- in other words, it will be an utter defeat. That doesn't stop me from siding with those who propose a measured withdrawal because our defeat is inevitable in any event. Just look at how well things are going. Just today, two Congressmen were injured when their vehicle overturned in Iraq on the way in from the airport. Yes, we're going to get out, but I sure hope the incompetent fools who got us into this don't manage to get out without being tarnished by their failure.